Consider this: Hollywood studios now make more money selling movie tickets in China than in any other market outside North America. Wanda, China’s largest real estate developer, bought AMC, the second-largest movie theater chain in the United States, and is also investing in making movies of its own. China is building theaters and adding movie screens at a rate not seen in the U.S. in decades, and Chinese audiences are ballooning.

DreamWorks Animation, which made the global blockbuster Kungfu Panda, is now making parts of the third of six planned installments, as well as other films, at its new joint-venture studio in Shanghai.

What does all this mean for Hollywood? A lot. Viewed through one lens, China is Hollywood’s savior: a new frontier, a place to mint fans and money. Viewed through another, it’s Hollywood’s nightmare: a country hostile to free expression where the state tries hard to maintain control of culture and wants to reap its own profits from its legions of filmgoers by keeping Hollywood on the outside looking in.

China, meanwhile, envies Hollywood as much for its cultural empire as for its financial clout.

The two sides need each other, want each other, and yet—despite last year’s landmark film deal a decade in the making—neither side is ready to completely embrace the other. Will the story end with carnage or with the two sides riding off into the sunset together? Too soon to say. In the meantime, here are some numbers to give you a sense of what’s at stake.

* * *

2.8

Billions of U.S.$ gross in movie tickets sold in China in 2012

10.8

Billions of U.S.$ gross in movie tickets sold in the U.S. in 2012

2.7

Billions of U.S.$ gross in movie tickets sold at China’s box office in first nine months of 2013

35

Percentage points rise in gross value of movie tickets sold in China in the first nine months of 2013, up from the same period in 2012

1.6

Billions of U.S.$ grossed by Chinese-language films at China’s box office from January 1 to September 30, 2013

58.2

Market share of Chinese-language films at the box office from January through September 2013

93.8

Percentage points rise in box office sales grossed by Chinese-language films over the first nine months of 2012

1.1

Billions of U.S.$ grossed by films imported into China from January 1 to September 30, 2013

41.9

Market share of imported films in the first nine months of 2013

5.2

Percentage points decline in box office gross sales of tickets to imported movies in the first nine months of 2013

1.39

Billions of RMB (182 million U.S.$) grossed by Avatar in China in 2009, making director James Cameron’s sci-fi film the all-time No. 1 movie in China (Source: Film Business Asia)

1.26

Billions of RMB (197 million U.S.$) grossed by Lost in Thailand in China in late 2012 and early 2013, making director Xu Zheng’s comedy the biggest Chinese-language hit of all time (Source: Box Office Mojo)

350

3

Billion U.S.$ Oriental DreamWorks has slated for a cultural and entertainment district in Shanghai

6

Number of installments of the Kung Fu Panda series

4

Number of installments of the Kung Fu Panda film franchise that Oriental DreamWorks plans to make in China

Except where noted, the data for this article comes from the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television of the People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT). It was compiled by Artisan Gateway and edited by Jonathan Landreth.